faith – Life Lessons

You Woke Up Today

If you’re reading this, it means you woke up today. Not everyone did. So be grateful. Whether you woke up in good or bad spirits, you still woke up. Whether you woke up to good or bad news, you still woke up.

My take on waking up is this: 1) I defeated the devil by doing so. 2) I’m given another opportunity to show love, grace, and mercy to someone. 3) I get to soak up another day of life’s blessings. 4) I’m one day closer to achieving my goals.

“I defeated the devil by doing so“

Waking up is a blessing from God, not Satan. Satan fills us with enough stress, worry, and anxiety to kill us in our sleep. That’s why it is important to go to bed with positive thoughts. You must keep the enemy from attacking you, even while you sleep.

Natural causes of death will occur. That’s fate. But if you don’t get control of your thoughts and emotions, you’ll become a lifeless, miserable soul. You might be physically woke but dying within. Thus, God also wakes us up to give us another chance to choose happiness.

“I’m given another opportunity to show love, grace, and mercy to someone”

I believe that as long as God continues to breathe life into me, the least I can do is give life to someone else by showing love, grace, or mercy. It’s called, “paying it forward”.

You don’t realize how much of a blessing waking up is until you’ve learned that someone you knew did not wake up today. Therefore, I try to treat every day like it’s my last. I will show love to someone in sometimes the simplest ways like sending a kind text message. I will help whomever I can whenever I can. I will forgive quickly and keep it moving.

Obedience is my priority, and I lead by example. That’s my mission.

“I get to soak up another day of life’s blessings”

The biggest blessings I enjoy waking up to are God’s grace, my family, and my health. Nothing else matters more. Some people wake up to the stock market. Some wake up to social media or television. Some wake up to music or whatever floats their boat. I can’t weigh your blessings on my scale. However, some of the little things I enjoy waking up to are a bed, a home with A/C and heat, transportation, and good food!

“I’m one day closer to achieving my goals”

Whether it seems like it or not, every calendar day counts toward achieving your goals, short and long term. Weren’t we just in 2024? Aren’t we already in April? Before you know it, you’ll be paying off that debt, owning that car or home, graduating from college, starting that business, taking that dream vacation, or saying “I do” at the alter. But one of the easiest ones you can achieve is getting closer to God.

Say it with me, “I am blessed because I woke up today!”

“If tomorrow isn’t promised, then don’t take today for granted. Happiness is a mindset. You just have to demand it.”

-Bianca A. McCormick-Johnson ✍🏽

The Government Is Not God

Whether at local, state, or federal level, you’re not safe in the hands of any government. The events occurring around the world today are evidence of history repeating itself and living in the last days. You cannot change what is destined to happen. However, you can change your attitude about what’s happening. Fate is a force of nature, but your faith can prepare you for what’s about to happen.

I’m not happy about the way our current president is handling the economy, but he was not appointed by God. The people put him in office. Some regret their decisions, and some still support his administration. To each his own. You can rant and debate about politics on social media, or you can give it to God. Put most of your energy on your knees to meet your needs.

It is our civil duty to cast our votes at the election polls. Faith doesn’t change that. Maybe your vote matters or maybe it doesn’t. Nonetheless, faith without works is a dead end. What I’ve learned is that our actions don’t stop at the polls.

We must pray for our leaders and promote change within our own communities, starting with your circle. Start having those tough conversations and healthy debates with your family members, friends and colleagues in an effort to understand their point of view. A polarized discussion can lead to a harmonized decision.

The goal is not necessarily to change people’s minds but to make them aware of how their decision may negatively affect someone they love or care about. It’s also important to know that many voting decisions are for selfish reasons, not the greater good of the people. Usually when people have one-sided debates or advocate for a particular change, that’s all they care about. Be a voice of love and reform for everyone, not just yourself.

I’m impartial to politics because they keep us divided. I don’t agree or disagree with everything from either party because neither is righteous. We print “In God We Trust” on our currency, but we took prayer out of public schools. So, to whom do we trust now?

I really don’t think God would be pleased with many of the proposed changes because they go against his teachings. If we’re not going to run our country according to God’s will, then his name shouldn’t be on our currency.

Fix what you can of yourself because you can’t fix this economy with worry, whining, and complaining. No president has ever been able to please everyone. Only God can do that.

“There may be multiple parties, but there’s only one God. Your mission may seem impossible, but for him, it’s never hard.”

-Bianca A. McCormick-Johnson ✍🏽

Fear Lives Forever, But You Don’t

Fear will always be present, as long as you continue to make room for it. It’s taking up needed space because you don’t have the courage to serve it an eviction notice. How long will you let it keep you from fulfilling your dreams and aspirations? Do you have any idea of how much rent you could be collecting for that space? By the time you realize it, your time will be up.

I learned that fear is nothing more than False Evidence Appearing Real. It leaks into your mind and causes you to believe that something exists when it really doesn’t. Fear of rejection can keep you from applying for a promotion or position. Fear of losing can keep you from entering a contest. Fear of failing can keep you from going back to school. Fear of dying can keep you from living. I reiterate. Fear of dying can keep you from living! If you spend your whole life in fear, you will never apply for that promotion! You will never enter that contest! You will never go back to school, and you will never live your life to its full potential because of some false notion that you couldn’t do it!

People who fear dying like to live spontaneous lives. Thus, they spend all their money trying to do everything on their bucket list, without a dime to save for the future. Many don’t even have life insurance. If you do not have a terminal illness, there’s no reason you should be afraid to achieve your goals. If all you’ve done was had fun, you haven’t fulfilled your purpose in life because you were too afraid. Now you’ve lived past 50 and realized you could’ve been that nurse, school teacher, police officer, or lawyer playing an important role in society. Instead, you buried the idea in fear.

Fear does not dissipate. Like energy, it gets transferred. The absence of fear is faith. If you lose your faith, fear can easily creep its way back in. You will learn more about faith in my book, “I’m G.O.O.D.”, to be released in July of 2016.

And remember…
“Make sense of what you do, and make every cent count.”

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.

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Photo: Flickr. Dreams-Fears by Pati Morris CC

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